Last week’s accidental disclosure that KRTY San Jose seemingly managed a 4.6 share as an online only radio station could disappear into the ether really easily. Online only stations don’t subscribe to Nielsen. KRTY no longer reports to the Country charts, despite initial assurances that they would. KRTY’s owner is no longer in the broadcast business. It is now one of many IP-only radio stations with a volunteer staff (at least initially) of former radio people. Why would broadcasters still embrace them?
Well. because KRTY does have a 4.6 share in the South Bay and an apparent 1.2 in San Francisco. So broadcasters should be discussing KRTY on every Zoom conference they have this week. The NAB should be thinking about a special achievement Marconi Award during NAB Show New York in October. BDSradio and Mediabase should reinstate KRTY as a monitored station. Broadcast radio has a significant success story and broadcasters should understand the value in telling that story.
If any former FM station was going to be viable online, it was KRTY, a 9.3-share radio station in a particularly technology-focused market. Even before the sale of its FM frequency to Christian AC “K-Love” owner EMF was announced in March, KRTY had done a better job with radio’s ubiquitous device promos than almost anybody, particularly in conveying a sense that somebody was actually listening on those other devices. KRTY had a lower-than-average spotload on FM; it was commercial free for its first month as IP-only. Even then, its achievement was holding half of its share; the other half has finally found its way to Alpha’s KBAY/KKDV (Bay Country), the AC FM that went Country this spring.
But other existing radio franchises have exited the FM dial and promised to stick around online or on HD-2. Those stations, usually unhosted, rarely sustain. (One of the few exceptions, Toronto’s Smooth Jazz “The Wave” kept an airstaff and finally returned on the FM dial, albeit in Vancouver.) Broadcasters’ streaming platforms become recognizable names, but don’t become phenomenal. With its low spotload and local ownership, KRTY was already an outlier, but it proves that radio has something to offer that goes beyond being the easiest default choice for in-car listeners.
KRTY came to the web with a sense of localism and community—something rare for IP-only radio, something increasingly difficult even for FM broadcasters. One of the station’s sweepers now announces “the legendary KRTY continues,” and adds that despite being available worldwide “we’re still serving San Jose.” In another sweeper, a listener announces that she’s made the switch and so have her cats, Brunello and Max. For that community to maintain, KRTY needs to be able to sustain a paid airstaff that sounds like more than random voicetracking. (KRTY’s middayer was out sick Friday, and you hear the difference it makes without a host.)
FM broadcasters may not recognize the value of keeping KRTY.com visible and viable. As long as non-broadcast subscribers aren’t encoded in PPM ratings measurement, all the station has done so far is siphon off four shares of listening that AM/FM may not repatriate. Earlier this year, I wrote about some online-only stations programmed by Ross on Radio readers, prompting the OM of a small Oregon cluster to express frustration to me that anybody can show up with a handful of songs and sweepers and be “radio.” I don’t know if such broadcasters will view a station with portfolio differently.
It’s hard to say exactly what the next step should be. Reducing spotload and fixing our stopset problems are tangible action steps for streaming that the broadcast industry has failed to address for 15 years. An elegant solution for the measurement of IP-only radio is unlikely to happen quickly, especially if KRTY’s broadcast competitors have to pay for it. Finding an HD-2 home so that KRTY can continue to be measured would be a good start for now, but it’s not a long-term industry strategy.
That’s why I’m serious about those Zoom calls, so that the brainstorming can start. And about that Marconi, so that the industry has a story to tell. And there’s a precedent for reinstating KRTY to the charts, since SiriusXM’s Rhythmic Top 40 “Venus” went online only, but continues to report. (BDSradio also monitors a number of streaming-only outlets.)
In general, I’ve been waiting for broadcasters to realize the value in extending the notion of “radio” to stations not heard on the AM/FM dial. Why shouldn’t SiriusXM bolster radio’s percentage of listening in Edison Research’s Share of Ear? It offers something that sounds like classic radio and is often enjoyed on the same radio as AM/FM stations? How can KRTY’s 4.6 share continue to count as well? Not finding a way to include that or similar stations in the broadcast community is like locking down the definition of “radio” as AM only in 1980, in which case radio would have been marginalized by 1982. KRTY is a potential turning point—if we are willing to pivot.
Here’s KRTY.com at 11:15 a.m. on August 19:
- Sawyer Brown, “The Race is On”
- Haley Whiters, “Everything She Ain’t”
- Randy Houser, “How Country Feels”
- Chris Janson, “Buy Me A Boat”
- Luke Combs, “The Kind of Love We Make”
- Florida Georgia Line, “Cruise”
- Keith Urban, “Blue Eyes Baby” (staged with an artist “behind the song” vignette)
- Luke Brown, “Country On”
- Kassi Ashton, “Dates in Pickup Trucks”
- Jason Aldean, “That’s What Tequila Does”
- Jackson Dean, “Don’t Come Lookin’”
- Brothers Osborne, “All Night”
- Tim McGraw, “Live Like You Were Dying”
- Thomas Rhett, “What’s Your Country Song”
- Carly Pearce, “What He Didn’t Do”
- Elle King f/Dierks Bentley, “Worth a Shot”
- Tiera Kennedy, “Found It in You”
- Pam Tillis, “Maybe It Was Memphis”
- Russell Dickerson, “Love You Like I Used To”
- Blake Shelton, “God’s Country”
I’m rooting for KRTY-FM, and any other station that can successfully pull off an FM-to-IP transition. But I’m also rooting for KBAY/KKDV, the Alpha Media station that dropped AC to become “Bay Country.” (I’m similarly grateful for 4BH Brisbane, Australia, the station that picked up Classic Hits when 10-share AM 4KQ was sold and went sports.)
I’ve been watching Bay Country take shape as well—quickly announcing the syndicated Bobby Bones Show, but also staffing up quickly throughout the day. When I listened to them on August 19, KBAY was positioned as “the Bay Areas’s only Country station.” Middayer Emily Harlan was giving away tickets to an upcoming Thomas Rhett show. The station is also giving away Disneyland tickets. Here’s KBAY just before Noon on August 19:
- Old Dominion, “One Man Band”
- Kelsea Ballerini, “Heartfirst”
- Thomas Rhett, “Sixteen”
- Luke Combs, “The Kind of Love We Make”
- Elle King & Miranda Lambert, “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home)”—with a station testimonial sweeper from King
- Zach Bryan, “Something in the Orange”
- Eric Church, “Some of It”
- Kane Brown, “Like I Love Country Music”
- Kenny Chesney, “Somewhere with You”
- Ingrid Andress w/Sam Hunt, “Wishful Drinking”
- Chris Johnson, “Good Vibes”
- Morgan Wallen, “Wasted On You”
- Luke Combs, “One Number Away”
- Tyler Hubbard, “5 Foot 9”
- Zac Brown Band, “Toes”
- Cole Swindell & Lainey Wilson, “Never Say Never”
- Lee Brice, “Memory I Don’t Mess With”
